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The New Era Of Physical Games

We’re entering into a new era of how video games are released. More content is being released digitally each year, but companies like Limited Run Games, Play-Asia and Strictly Limited Games are saying no to digital only releases. Of course there’s more players in this game, but those are just a few making a difference in the physical video game industry.

For those of you who are new to these gaming companies, you may be asking yourself who are these guys? Well, companies like Limited Run take previously digital only games and do a limited physical release. One of the greatest things about printing games physically is that it puts these games into so many more hands than before and preserves them for generations to come.

There’s an entire market of gamers out there who still don’t buy digital games, so for those gamers owning a physical copy is the only way to play these games. I’m sure you’re next question might be, what’s wrong with digital games. It’s a combination of reasons why people don’t like digital games. The biggest reason is that not everyone has the required high speed broadband internet capabilities to download these games, so a physical release might be their only option. The other portion of physical game fans don’t like digital, because for two main reasons.

Firstly, it’s not a guarantee that those digital games will be in the cloud for ever. What happens when you’re console breaks or you decide to upgrade to the newest version of that console? You could potentially lose all those games that you bought digitally. It’s very easy for a company to lose the license for a game and if that happens you could lose the game for ever.

The second reason why we love physical releases is because it’s something tangible. There’s nothing like scrolling through your game library deciding what to play. Owning the physical game reminds us the emotions we felt playing the game for the first time. Scrolling through a digital library sadly does not feel the same. That is why we love companies like Limited Run Games. They remind us why we love video games.

That being said, two of Limited Run’s earlier releases were Oddworld: New N’ Tasty and Shantae: The Pirate’s Curse, which are in high demand now and both fetch a high price on the second market. Naturally, that has attracted a lot of attention to Limited Run. It is this popularity that has grown the hobby by attracting more companies to release their own physical releases. Only time will tell what other great digital games will make their way to a physical disc, but in the meantime it definitely feels like Limited Run Games has started a revolution.

Follow the links below if you like what we’re building here at Limited Printed Games, and as a disclaimer we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. to order Oddworld New N’ Tasy ($124.99) and here’s a great deal for Shantae: Half-Genie Hero ($23.97)